Wisdom
Because all beginning Tai Chi players seem to get caught up in the idea of doing everything perfectly, I offer them this quote from a wonderful book on the origins, theory, and practice of Tai Chi.
“Tai Chi is based on the I Ching, especially on the idea of “change.” Nobody can perform the forms and postures of Tai Chi perfectly, for perfection is relative-an ideal dependent on individual perception. In playing Tai Chi, our aim must be to change again and again; to play with variations in order to make progress each time in our understanding of the principles we are attempting to embody. Even if we try to hold everything constant, even if we strive to reproduce some image of a “perfect form,” nature itself insures that conditions within and around us are never the same and no two performances will ever be identical. We can either be frustrated by this or we can learn the way in which change, the only constant, can be employed to attain higher levels of wellness, happiness, and awareness.”
-Tsung Hwa Jou
Often students become frustrated because they expect to feel the “chi” connection and work harder and harder to experience it. I try to remind them that the connection comes from not from straining harder but from effortlessly letting go.
“Tai chi is often described as the art of effortless power. With Push we begin to see that effortless power does not mean without effort but without any extra or heavy-handed effort. To achieve this, our alignment, the amount of energy used, the timing, and the execution must all flow together seamlessly. Finding that connection can be like having the directions to get to a place but written in a foreign language. There is a great deal of translating and trying out to do before one actually gets to where one wants to go. But it’s worth the attempt. When we do sense that connection, it is one of the greatest sources of well-being we can experience in t’ai chi.”
-Linda Myoki Lehrhaupt
T’ai Chi Gong: A Long Term Perspective
A Statement by Robynn Honeychurch:
All these lessons have been ways for you to connect with your internal energy and the universal energy flowing through each of us. This “chi” or energy will help heal your body and mind and expand your spirit. It will help bring you into inner balance and provide you with insight into yourself and your body. This chi will expand your consciousness.
But only through practice and listening inwards can you really understand the way T’ai Chi Gong can transform you, the peace it can bring you, the self awareness and inner growth.
Doing sincere T’ai Chi Gong will make you face yourself, discover your weaknesses AND your strengths, it will centre you, clear you, inspire you, and change you. It will bring you more into alignment with your spirit and with the energy of the universe around you.
Sincere T’ai Chi Gong practice means moving beyond your ego to a place of self-observance where you can easily focus the mind in the body, letting the non-essentials of life and the moment melt away. You will then be able to FEEL the “joy through movement” of this practice flow over and through you. The practice of T’ai Chi Gong is a path to enlightenment as well as an excellent method of maintaining wholistic wellness.
The T’ai Chi Gong lessons you learn reflect those you will learn in life, will be relevant to your whole life and FOR your whole life. Practice with intent, focus the mind, relax, breathe, be in the moment… and FEEL THE JOY!
May the light be with you
Statements by Chungliang Al Huang, T’ai Ji Master
“T’ai Ji is a universal medium for the cultivation of Body, Mind and Spirit.
It is natural. It is perennial. It is for everyone, of all ages.
It is easy to learn. It can be joyful and exciting to practice.
It is a dance of life to be treasured.
It is for you.”
“Do not forget that the only Tai Ji tool is the human body, already perfectly attuned to move in the Tai Ji way.
We must learn not to interfere with its organic functioning, but instead, to trust it.
Practice each time like it was the first time. Let your practice be like the sun rising anew every morning.
So an important question becomes, “Do I like it?”, not “Is it good for me?”
Enjoyment of practice means enjoyment of learning.
And most rewarding for me, it means an enjoyment of being a Tai Ji beginner. For Tai Ji is a continuous learning process. One never completes the course, but simply follows the process.”
“Take time to become re-acquainted with running down the hill, spreading your arms like wings, reaching up to the blue sky on the mountain top, and extending beyond the horizon across the sea.
Remember how your body feels swimming downstream, effortlessly being carried away.”
“Learn to open yourself.
Stretch your arms. Open your legs. Open you eyes, your throat.
Breathe.
Open your chest, your gut, your pelvis.
Open your Dantien.
Open your heart and your mind.
Relax and breathe.
You will find your horizons expanding, your vision improving….
Enjoy this open arm, open-minded, open-heart position.
T’ai Ji is Joy and Happiness.”
T’ai Chi Gong : Joy Through Movement!
Quotes and Thoughts from the “Everything T’ai Chi and Qigong Book”
- Reminders for good Moving Meditation Practice:
Relax, breathe, root and sink, feel the “Joy Through Movement”, have slowness and evenness, feel the balancing of the move: the emptiness and fullness.
- The very essence of T’ai Chi Gong is to “unite the thoughts, the feelings, and the body to create perfect alignment with the moment. This alignment then draws from Wu Chi [the energy of the universe/ ‘source of wholeness’], is brought into being with T’ai Chi, and then inspires yin and yang [and thus the body, mind and spirit] into a balance.”
- “In meditation, the tension between the body’s need to survive and the spirit’s need to grow in new ways is diminished. This shows itself in reduced body stress, reduction of illness, and slowing of aging.”
- “Feelings are seldom a pure reaction to the moment. More often they are greatly influenced by thoughts going somewhere else and influencing your feelings. For example, suppose you’ve had a hard, long day and someone did something that got under your skin. It continues to bother you if you have intrusive thoughts about it. You get home, and your kids are noisy. You tell them to quiet down. You shout. Your intrusive thoughts have directed your feelings because you are still irritated at and thinking about… [that unsettling event]. Again, most thoughts have nothing to do with the activity of the moment. Usually, you’re thinking about what has happened, what might be happening, or what will happen.
“All this is unsettling for the body. The body is so deeply influenced by thoughts and feelings, and yet people seldom do anything that directly expresses thoughts or feelings through bodily action. As a result, at a health level your body is always stressed to some degree. Shortness of breath, upset stomach, and heart palpitations are just a very few of the related problems.
“A stressed body is not a relaxed body, which is hardly a surprise. But also a tense body can’t take in its full amount of breath/chi, and that’s a big problem. The body is stressing, responding to all the bouncing thought and feelings. Yet this is the scattered-state life that most everyone leads.”
- “Using T’ai Chi methods of expanding awareness is an effective way to expand yourself to more pleasure in ordinary moments. A relaxed person is naturally a more expanded person. A relaxed person appreciates more, enjoys giving more, receives with love, and sees more opportunities for him- or herself to enjoy still more.” A relaxed person, in a positive frame of mind and emotions, can manifest anything he or she desires and focuses on.